Artur Davis: Do "These Democrats Still Speak For You?"

TAMPA — Democratic turncoat Artur Davis addressed the Republican National Convention on Tuesday evening with a message for Democrats, asking them if they recognize his former party and calling on them to join the GOP.

“To those Democrats and independents whose minds are open to argument: listen closely to the Democratic Party that will gather in Charlotte and ask yourself if you ever hear your voice in the clamor,” Davis said in a speech whose cadences and themes echoed, and aimed to rebut, elements of Obama’s 2008 appeal. “Ask yourself if these Democrats still speak for you.”

Davis was among Obama’s earliest supporters in 2007 — he seconded Obama’s nomination in 2008 —but since losing his bid for Governor of Alabama as a Democrat and then criticizing Obama sharply over his attacks on Bain Capital, Davis has emerged as a key Romney surrogate.

Republicans gave Davis a rave welcome at the convention, and gave him an even longer standing ovation as a send-off, while the Democratic National Committee has sought to brand him as a disgruntled opportunist.

When they say we have a duty to grow government even when we can’t afford it, does it sound like compassion to you — or recklessness?

When you hear the party that glorified Occupy Wall Street blast success; when you hear them minimize the genius of the men and women who make jobs out of nothing, is that what you teach your children about work?

When they tell you America is this unequal place where the powerful trample on the powerless, does that sound like the country your children or your spouse risked their lives for in Iraq or Afghanistan?

Do you even recognize the America they are talking about? And what can we say about a house that doesn’t honor the pictures on its walls?